This Instant Pot Chicken Tinga is perfect for those busy weeknights! Tangy flavorful tender chicken, cooked to perfection in a delicious homemade Tinga sauce, ready to be added to your favorite tacos, tostadas or even burritos. Best of all it’s made in your Instant Pot and ready in just 30 minutes!
I have to admit I love cooking chicken in as many ways as I can. It’s easy, versatile and so tasty! If you’ve never made tinga before, it’s a chipotle tomato sauce and the best thing about it, is you can make it as spicy as you like. This chicken tinga or tinga de pollo as it’s known in Mexico, is perfect for busy weeknights because it requires just a few minutes of prep time and then let the pressure cooker do all the work.
Chicken Tinga
- Juicy and tender chicken
- Made in the Instant Pot
- Ready in just 30 minutes
- Rivals any restaurant chicken tinga
The mild heat from the chipotle peppers combines so well with the tangy tomato flavor giving your chicken tinga one of the most inviting Mexican tastes out there. You’ll feel like cranking up the beat with some Latino tunes and just trying out your salsa steps in the kitchen while your meal is getting ready in the Instant Pot. The biggest convenience about making this dish is that it takes very little prepping time to cooking to reaching the dinner table. And that, my friends, is what we want from any recipe: speed and amazing taste!
Ingredient Notes
For Sauce
- Chipotle Peppers – Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to bring on the heat. This is one of my favorite ingredients ever and I always call it gold because it’s like gold in any recipe. In this recipe I only call for 2 peppers but this will yield a very mild sauce, so if you like spicy food, I’d go with more peppers, 4 or 5. The more the better!
- Onion and garlic– Essential flavor enhancers to any sauce.
- Broth – Chicken broth or vegetable broth are both great for this recipe, I opt for low sodium.
- Tomatoes – I used fire roasted tomatoes because I love the extra smokiness that they add to this sauce. However, feel free to use just regular diced tomatoes.
- Seasoning – Salt and pepper to taste.
For Chicken
- Chicken – I used boneless skinless chicken thighs, but you can also substitute that with chicken breast or chicken tenders. I find the thighs are juicier and perfect for this kind of dish.
- Olive oil – Just a bit of olive oil to saute the onion in the Instant Pot. You can use other oils, such as vegetable or canola oil.
- Onion – More onion for additional flavor.
For Tacos
- Tortillas – Corn tortillas or flour tortillas. You can also make your own using my tortilla recipe.
- Avocados – Fresh, ripe avocados, smashed. You could also make your own guacamole and use that instead.
- Red Onion – One small chopped red onion. You can also use regular onion.
- Cilantro – Roughly chop your cilantro to add as garnish to your tacos.
- Cheese – Crumbled cotija cheese or feta cheese work best for this.
- Limes – Lime wedges to freshly squeeze over the tacos.
How To Make Instant Pot Chicken Tinga
- Make the sauce: In a blender, add all the sauce ingredients together and blend until smooth.
- Saute the onion: Turn your Instant Pot to the sauté setting and heat the olive oil. Add the sliced onion and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the onion has softened.
- Cook the chicken: Add the chicken and sauce to the Instant Pot and stir everything together. Close the lid (follow the manufacturer’s guide for instructions on how to close the instant pot lid). Set valve to sealing and set the Instant Pot to the manual setting and the timer to 8 minutes. Once the Instant Pot cycle is complete, wait until the natural release cycle is complete, should take about 10 minutes. Carefully unlock and remove the lid from the instant pot.
- Shred the chicken: Switch the Instant Pot to the saute setting (do not put the lid on). Transfer the chicken thighs to a bowl and shred with 2 forks. Add the shredded chicken back to the instant pot and continue cooking on Saute mode for another 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper as needed.
- Ready to serve: Assemble tacos by topping the tortillas with mashed avocados, chicken tinga, red onion, cilantro, cotija cheese and a drizzle of lime juice.
FAQ’s and Expert Tips
FAQ’s
Chicken tinga is a dish that originated in the city of Puebla, Mexico. Chicken tinga (known as tinga de pollo in Spanish) is made with shredded chicken in a flavorful sauce made from tomatoes, chipotle peppers in adobo, and sliced onions. It is often served as a protein for taco dishes.
You can serve it either warm or cold with a variety of toppings such as sliced avocados, queso fresco, salsa, sour cream, radishes, diced onions and cilantro as tacos, burritos, tostadas or even along some rice.
The tinga sauce made with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, tomatoes and onions has a mild heat to it and a tangy overall flavor that pairs well with chicken meat. If you want it spicier, feel free to add more chipotle peppers.
Absolutely! You can simply make the sauce as instructed, saute the chopped onion with the olive oil in a skillet, then dump everything in the slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 6 hours or HIGH for 2 to 3 hours. Take out the chicken and shred it, then transfer it back to the slow cooker and cook for an additional 30 minutes on LOW. Assemble tacos as instructed in the recipe.
Tips
- You can use either chicken things, chicken breast or chicken tenders.
- You can expand your topping selection to a variety of veggies and garnishes that can include corn, tomatoes, celery, black beans and the list can go on. Get creative with what you want to add.
- Instead of just plain smashed avocados, make guacamole and use that for extra flavor.
- Use chicken tinga for taco salads, burritos, burrito bowls, nachos, tostadas, etc.
Leftovers
If you have leftover Chicken Tinga you can store the meat separately in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days and just add your preferred toppings onto your tacos right before serving.
Freezer
The Chicken Tinga stores great in the freezer. Make sure your meat is cooled down to room temperature before storing it in an airtight container or freezer bag. It will last up to 3-4 months in your freezer.
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Instant Pot Chicken Tinga
Equipment
Ingredients
Sauce
- 2 chipotle peppers in adobo
- 1 small onion quartered
- 3 cloves garlic smashed
- 1 cup chicken broth low sodium
- 14 ounce fire roasted tomatoes (1 small can)
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon pepper or to taste
Chicken
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2-3 pounds chicken thighs boneless and skinless
To Serve
- 12 small corn tortillas or flour tortillas
- 2 avocados ripe, smashed
- 1 small red onion chopped
- ¼ cup cilantro chopped
- cotija cheese crumbled, or crumbled feta
- 2 limes cut into wedges
Instructions
- Make the sauce: In a blender, add all the sauce ingredients together and blend until smooth.
- Saute the onion: Turn your Instant Pot to the sauté setting and heat the olive oil. Add the sliced onion and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the onion has softened.
- Cook the chicken: Add the chicken and sauce to the Instant Pot and stir everything together. Close the lid (follow the manufacturer’s guide for instructions on how to close the instant pot lid). Set valve to sealing and set the Instant Pot to the manual setting and the timer to 8 minutes. Once the Instant Pot cycle is complete, wait until the natural release cycle is complete, should take about 10 minutes. Carefully unlock and remove the lid from the instant pot.
- Shred the chicken: Switch the Instant Pot to the saute setting (do not put the lid on). Transfer the chicken thighs to a bowl and shred with 2 forks. Add the shredded chicken back to the instant pot and continue cooking on Saute mode for another 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper as needed.
- Assemble tacos: Assemble tacos by topping the tortillas with mashed avocados, chicken tinga, red onion, cilantro, cotija cheese and a drizzle of lime juice.
Recipe Notes
- You can use either chicken things, chicken breast or chicken tenders.
- You can expand your topping selection to a variety of veggies and garnishes that can include corn, tomatoes, celery, black beans and the list can go on. Get creative with what you want to add.
- Instead of just plain smashed avocados, make guacamole and use that for extra flavor.
- Use chicken tinga for taco salads, burritos, burrito bowls, nachos, tostadas, etc.
- If you have leftover Chicken Tinga you can store the meat separately in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days and just add your preferred toppings onto your tacos right before serving.
- The Chicken Tinga stores great in the freezer. Make sure your meat is cooled down to room temperature before storing it in an airtight container or freezer bag. It will last up to 3-4 months in your freezer.
So good! I did add more chipotle in adobo and some cayenne pepper because we like hot food. But overall it was delicious! We had it on tostadas with refried beans, lettuce, cheese and homemade salsa . Will definitely keep this one in my rotation
It’s in my crock pot cooking away. The instructions are easy enough. It will feed a crowd. However, be aware that using 2 chipotle peppers in adobo will be hot, hot, hot! Luckily I only put in one pepper and tasted the sauce first. One was hot enough for my family! Can’t wait to try the finished tacos.
Mine wasn’t spicy at all with 2 peppers, but I realize everyone’s spiciness level is different. Hope you like it!